Column: Firing coach not enough at Rutgers

By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Columnist
| 5:37 p.m.April 3, 2013

FILE - In this May 6, 2010, file photo, Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti, right, presents Mike Rice with a jersey after Rice was introduced as the school's men's basketball coach during a news conference in Piscataway, N.J. The airing Tuesday, April 2, 2013, of a videotape of Rice using gay slurs, shoving and grabbing his players and throwing balls at them in practice over the past three seasons has Pernetti reconsidering his decision not to fire the coach. Pernetti was given a copy of the
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FILE - In this May 6, 2010, file photo, Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti, right, presents Mike Rice with a jersey after Rice was introduced as the school's men's basketball coach during a news conference in Piscataway, N.J. The airing Tuesday, April 2, 2013, of a videotape of Rice using gay slurs, shoving and grabbing his players and throwing balls at them in practice over the past three seasons has Pernetti reconsidering his decision not to fire the coach. Pernetti was given a copy of the
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Former Rutgers head coach Mike Rice is driven from his home, Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in Little Silver, N.J. With political and social pressure mounting after video showed Rice screaming gay slurs and shoving, kicking and throwing balls at his NCAA college basketball players, the university fired Rice on Wednesday, and then did their best to avoid the blame for not getting it right four months ago. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)— AP

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Former Rutgers head coach Mike Rice is driven from his home, Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in Little Silver, N.J. With political and social pressure mounting after video showed Rice screaming gay slurs and shoving, kicking and throwing balls at his NCAA college basketball players, the university fired Rice on Wednesday, and then did their best to avoid the blame for not getting it right four months ago. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
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In this four-image combo taken from an ESPN video, Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice kicks, shoves, and throws balls at his players during NCAA college basketball practices in Piscataway, N.J. Fueled by outrage from even the governor when the video went public, Rutgers fired Rice on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, after deciding it didn't go far enough by suspending and fining him for shoving, kicking and throwing balls at players along with spewing gay slurs. (AP Photo/ESPN)— AP

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In this four-image combo taken from an ESPN video, Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice kicks, shoves, and throws balls at his players during NCAA college basketball practices in Piscataway, N.J. Fueled by outrage from even the governor when the video went public, Rutgers fired Rice on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, after deciding it didn't go far enough by suspending and fining him for shoving, kicking and throwing balls at players along with spewing gay slurs. (AP Photo/ESPN)
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FILE - In this March 12, 2013, file photo, Rutgers coach Mike Rice yells out to his team during an NCAA college basketball game against DePaul at the Big East tournament in New York. Rutgers said it would reconsider its decision to retain Rice after a videotape aired showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players in practice and using gay slurs. The videotape, broadcast Tuesday, April 2, on ESPN, prompted scores of outraged social media comments as well as sharp criticism from Gov. — AP

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FILE - In this March 12, 2013, file photo, Rutgers coach Mike Rice yells out to his team during an NCAA college basketball game against DePaul at the Big East tournament in New York. Rutgers said it would reconsider its decision to retain Rice after a videotape aired showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players in practice and using gay slurs. The videotape, broadcast Tuesday, April 2, on ESPN, prompted scores of outraged social media comments as well as sharp criticism from Gov.
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FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2013 file photo, Rutgers head coach Mike Rice reacts after Syracuse scored late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Syracuse, N.Y. Rutgers has fired Rice after a videotape aired showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players in practice and using gay slurs during practice. With mounting criticism on a state and national level, the school decided to take action on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. relieving Rice of his duties after three largely un— AP

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FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2013 file photo, Rutgers head coach Mike Rice reacts after Syracuse scored late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Syracuse, N.Y. Rutgers has fired Rice after a videotape aired showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players in practice and using gay slurs during practice. With mounting criticism on a state and national level, the school decided to take action on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. relieving Rice of his duties after three largely un
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The easy part was getting rid of Mike Rice, something Rutgers had little choice in doing once the governor of New Jersey and the king of basketball weighed in on his videotaped transgressions.

Gov. Chris Christie wasn't going to have Rice remain as basketball coach at the state's flagship university, and quickly let it be known where he stood. So did LeBron James, in a tweet to his 7.8 million followers that was even more direct.

"If my son played for Rutgers or a coach like that he would have some real explaining to do and I'm still gone whoop on him afterwards!" James tweeted. "C'mon."

C'mon, indeed. You don't need to be a governor or a superstar to be outraged at the video of Rice kicking, shoving and shouting homophobic insults at players in practice. Anyone who watched the out-of-control coach abuse his young players likely came away with the same angry thought.

Anyone other than Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti, that is.

Oh, sure, Pernetti and university president Robert Barchi are on board now, expressing regret after firing Rice about how they handled the coach's initial punishment in December. Pernetti flat out said he was wrong, while Barchi released a statement saying he, too, had an epiphany of sorts after actually watching the tape Tuesday.

Apparently Barchi's change of heart came after he saw Rice throwing balls at players and calling them the kind of names that get people in fights at playgrounds around the country. For reasons known only to him, Barchi signed off on a punishment for Rice that included a three-game suspension and anger management courses without even bothering to watch the videotape back in December.

Had he done his job then, maybe Rutgers wouldn't be where it is now.

Their decision at the time didn't result in any great outcry because Pernetti and Barchi didn't say what exactly Rice had done to earn his suspension - which conveniently ended just before the school's Big East opener against Syracuse. Followers of the program were mostly perplexed about why their coach would have to sit out for what was vaguely referred to as inappropriate conduct and language.

I can't imagine what they were thinking when they went down the list of possible punishments. The physical abuse alone was a fireable offense, but the anti-gay slurs took it to a whole new level.

Three games and anger management courses? At a university where just three years ago, a student killed himself after his roommate used a webcam to spy on him kissing another man in his dorm.

My only guess is they thought the Rice video wouldn't surface. There can be no other explanation, because what is seen on the tape is so inflammatory that no reasonable person - much less leaders of our youth - could justify allowing Rice back on the court with the kids he was seen abusing.

And if they're that clueless in today's world of viral video then they need to go, too.

For botching the first punishment, yes. Maybe, too, for hiring Rice in the first place.

This was a coach so high-strung that he once knocked out his own father's tooth in a pickup game, a guy who coached on the edge and thought nothing of going over it. Other schools were scared away by his intensity, but Pernetti was so impressed that he said he viewed him as a "life coach" as well as a basketball coach when he hired him.

Pernetti said at the time he loved Rice's intensity, loved the way he interviewed. But maybe he should have paid more attention to what Rice said about himself in the Asbury Park Press after he was hired.

"When we go to practice, my formula is always to attack our best players," Rice told the paper. "Because they're the ones who need it the most, because they're the ones that have to do it at a higher level every night. They're the ones who are game-planned against. If you don't accept my energy, my intensity, my urgency, you're not going to do very well with me. Is my way of coaching right? No, but it works for me."

Or this nugget from his father - a former coach himself - that appeared in the Courier News of Bridgewater, N.J., about the same time.

"Sometimes Mike gets a little too intense with his teaching," Mike Rice Sr. said. "If you don't work as hard as he thinks you should, he lets you know it. I tell him, "Good thing you're not in the NBA; someone would throw you over the bleachers.' He tells me, "You were always way too soft on players.' "

The pressure to win in big-time college sports can be suffocating, so maybe Pernetti felt compelled to take a chance on a coach whose last team at Robert Morris had nine technical fouls in just one season. He went for the hard-charging coach, hoping an up-and-comer like Rice could light a fire under a program in desperate need of a turnaround.

It backfired horribly, and now there's a price to pay.

What is especially troubling is that neither Pernetti nor Barchi seemed inclined as late as Tuesday to get rid of Rice even as the video aired on ESPN and the ensuing firestorm threatened to envelop the program.

Rutgers will be a better place with a new coach who respects players and doesn't engage in homophobic name calling. Rice himself seemed to understand that when he spoke contritely outside his house Wednesday about the mistakes he made and the embarrassment he caused the university and his family.

No need to stop there, though. Not with the way this whole thing was botched.